Congenital Cytomegalovirus Is the Second Most Frequent Cause of Bilateral Hearing Loss in Young French Children

Objective To estimate the prevalence of congenital cytomegalovirus (cCMV) among causes of bilateral hearing loss in young French children. Study design Children <3 years old with hearing loss were prospectively included at their first visit to a referral center. Cytomegalovirus polymerase chain reaction was performed on dried blood spots from Guthrie cards. Medical records were reviewed. Results One hundred children with bilateral hearing loss were included at a median age of 15 months; the prevalence of cCMV was 8% (8/100) (95% CI, 2.7%-13.3%) in this population and 15.4% (8/52) in the subpopulation of children with profound bilateral hearing loss. Delayed neurodevelopment and brain abnormalities on computed tomography scan were found more often in children with cCMV than in children with hearing loss without cCMV (P = .027, P = .005). In 6 of 8 cCMV cases, cCMV infection had not been diagnosed before the study. Conclusions In a comprehensive study of the causes of bilateral hearing loss in young French children, cCMV is the second most frequent cause of hearing loss after connexin mutations. It underlines that a majority of French children with hearing loss and cCMV are not diagnosed early and therefore may not benefit from early intervention including the possibility of neonatal antiviral treatment. These results make the case for promoting systematic cytomegalovirus screening in neonates with confirmed hearing loss identified through neonatal hearing screening. (J Pediatr 2013;162:593-9).